eurotechnology.japan.blog

Google, Apple, Nokia, HTC, Vodafone and are winning the driver's seat of the global internet revolution. DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank essentially stay inside Japan for now - limiting their growth prospects and leaving global opportunities to others.




GOOGLE with Android and APPLE with iPhone are reaching for the driver's seat of the global mobile data revolution. Global companies including GOOGLE, Vodafone, Apple and NOKIA grow to US$ 100s Billion valuations, while local companies NTT, DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank remain essentially limited to Japan's market for now. Smartphone maker HTC increases impact - including in Japan.

Labels: apple, docomo, google, htc, iphone, KDDI, nokia, ntt, softbank

SoftBank from 4th to 1st position within less than 12 months... SoftBank's turn-round of x-Vodafone-Japan, went faster than many expected. Within less than 12 months SoftBank went from last place to first place in customer sign-ups, overtaking even KDDI's super-popular AU. Willcom recently suffers from SoftBank's revival, as well as from eMobile's flat rate data services.

Labels: docomo, Japan, KDDI, keitai, mobile phone, ntt, softbank, yahoo keitai

In the last few days NTT, NTT-DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank announced their first half financial results. SoftBank and KDDI are the winners both for market share and for profits, while DoCoMo's results and market shares are sinking, and pulling the NTT-Group down at this time. Extrapolation indicates that DoCoMo's net profits may fall into the red about one year from now, drastic action is taken soon.




The thin lines show linear interpolations of quarterly net profit data. Our extrapolation seems to indicate that DoCoMo's net profit might fall into the red towards then end of calender year 2008 unless drastic action is taken. If current trends continue, SoftBank's net profits might exceed DoCoMo's mid-2008. We expect DoCoMo to take dramatic action before this happens.

Labels: docomo, Japan, KDDI, mobile phone, ntt, number portability, softbank, yahoo keitai

CLSA - Asia-Pacific Markets - last week organized the "CLSA Japan Forum" here in Tokyo. About 800-1000 investment bankers, portfolio managers, investors, analysts came together. Since last year interest of global investors in Japan has increased a lot.

Eurotechnology Japan KK participated actively, and on Friday March 2, 2007, gave a presentation on:

"Impact of mobile payment and the future of money"

The presentation covers the following agenda:
- Can e-money and mobile payment replace cash?
- Example: mobile payment for the world's busiest train line
- DoCoMo's target for mobile payments
- Japan's mobile payment and keitai credit landscape
- Free markets vs regulation
- Mifare and Felica chips and radio communications (NFC)
- Who drives mobile payments
- Growth of SUICA
- DoCoMo's mobile payment and keitai credit strategy
- Edy - electronic cash
- A major bank's mobile payment system
- Impact
- Where to invest - who to watch
- Summary

"Impact of mobile payment and the future of money" (download here)

"Mobile payment and keitai credit (download here)


  Slashdot It!

Labels: docomo, edy, felica, mobile payment, suica, walletphone

Japan's mobile subscriber numbers grew by about 5 million in 2006. Because of the much higher ARPU, Japan's mobile market again grew by a couple of Finlands during 2006. A growing number of people have more than one mobile phone, to take advantage of the best rates, eg for mail, voice and data. We expect growth to continue. Our analysis below shows that KDDI's and AU's gains are a lot larger than a superficial view of the statistics reveals - see our Figure below. Find a detailed review in the latest edition of our JCOMM-Report.




KDDI's subscriber gains during 2006 are much bigger than a superficial analysis reveals (see figure above):

KDDI's AU mobile service gained about 4.2 million new subscribers during 2006 - more than twice as many than DoCoMo's cellular service, which gained about 1.8 million new subscriptions.

Currently, KDDI is shutting down it's TuKa 2G service, and DoCoMo is shutting down it's PHS service. Both services together lost more than 2 million subscribers during 2006 - this is a much larger movement than due to number portability introduced on Oct 24, 2006.

KDDI offers both number portability and mobile email portability, and reports surprise that many former low-end TuKa users moved to top-end high-speed WIN (2.4 Mbps) data services.

For KDDI, enticing TuKa subscribers to move to high-end/high-speed AU services was an excellent preparation for number portability, and helped KDDI win in the first stage.

Labels: au, docomo, Japan, KDDI, mnp, mobile, mobile number portability, subscriber numbers, subscriptions, wireless

Mobile number portability created winners and losers in only two months - the main business challenge for Japanese operators is to avoid a price war.

KDDI is the clear winner in the first round, DoCoMo suffers a setback, and SoftBank did better than expected.

Today we released the 23rd edition of our JCOMM-Report - about 250 pages of overview and analysis of Japan's telecom sector.

KDDI gains 524,000 subscribers in Oct & Nov 2006. DoCoMo for the first time ever since it was founded experienced a net loss of subscriptions.




KDDI gains 600,000 new EZweb subscribers, Japanese operators earn much from mobile internet - subscription data show even better results for KDDI's EZweb.

Labels: docomo, KDDI, mnp, mobile number portability, softbank, subscriber numbers

Both i-Mode and EZweb top menu pages display Season Greetings and reflect Japan's seasonal mood: autumn sports days in schools, skiing in winter, Halloween and New Year.

Here are this year's New Year greetings for the Year of the boar on i-mode and EZweb which were displayed from January 1, 2007 for a few days during Japan's New Year vacation:





More about Japan's mobile internet:

DoCoMo and i-Mode
KDDI and EZweb
SoftBank and YAHOO-Keitai

Labels: docomo, ezweb, i-mode, imode, KDDI